Wiki School Pedia

Thanks for 34 participants we had so far within this month (4 more than our initial plan). It’s never easy to register  for something that you don’t know much about. Let’s just say it’s not easy to have faith without seeing. I personally thank every one of you. We promise you, some time in April, you will see clearly why this event is so fantastic to attend. You have my words.

In this opportunity, we would also welcome and open further 10 more spaces before the early bird is completed (by March 31st). As people said, the more the merrier right?

Talking about “the more the merrier”, I thought I’d love to share what’s my thought is in this past weeks.

I heard a few people come to me telling how workshop by this and that photographers ended up disappointing because of different expectations set. The material is not worth of money because it’s more for people who just started the business but not for professionals. Workshop by wedding photographers nowadays become business trends for wedding photographers.

As mentioned in my past post, it’s darn hard to find to have someone who can teach experienced peers because you need to be a successful photography business, and also a great teacher. So in the end, workshop for wedding photography merely targets for people who just started or planning to shoot weddings. The right information is extremely important for those people.

I often asked others “How do you wish WSP to help in building a better future in wedding photography industry?”. Most people responses’ were asking for a better system for people to think twice to call themselves professional before they are really ready. So I guess people who are matured in the industry are concerned about the quality of work of  people who are not yet ready for the market and sell at bargain-priced for their service. The impact is poor client education to the couples or others about good wedding photography and certainly the market price is not healthy. Once again, people who just started their wedding photography business are always the target for everything. I feel sorry for them. They are confused, lack of direction in what to do and whom they can listen to.

There was a recent article that shocked the world of professional wedding photography last week. The article was written by one of the respected person in the world of wedding photography industry. The article offers a quick 10 steps in starting a wedding photography business (I assume photography business = professional). What was shocking was one of the steps to encourage photographers to “Spray and Pray”. It shocked me personally because I thought the word “Professional” should be accompanied by the professional knowledge, skills, tools and experiences before calling themselves one. “Spray and Pray” is the common term used among digital photographers to shoot lots and pray that some of them turns to be good or make the couple happy. I am against any idea that encourages photographers to do that. Photographers must believe that photo speaks for a thousand words. By spraying without thinking, how can words can be spoken in one frame if the photographer does not know what to shoot. For me, this type of photographers can only build a career that is waiting to fall in the future. Yes you can start your business easily by having 2-3 happy clients from your friends hoping to get some experiences but they don’t have many expectations (because they could be on the budget, they are willing to compromise). But when you are selling to complete strangers, professionals must have consistency or some works that he/she can be held responsible with.

Once again, people who wish to have a better wedding photography business is confused whom they can listen to. I am not naive that I would love to teach more to people who plans to enter photography business. But what one “I” can do, I need more “I” in the team. Thus, the Bali event could be the first workshop in Asia-Pacific designed for professional wedding photographers, not for hobbyist. The idea is to inspire the experienced ones so they can be a great foundation for teaching other people who start shooting weddings later on.

I hope to build WSP to be the place for people from different cultures, background and skills where we all can learn together. The experienced ones share to the inexperienced ones and vice versa. It’s networking at its best. Building the place where people believe that only by doing the great works, you can get hired. I’d like to share Jeremy Cowart‘s quote “The more you know technically, the more you can achieve creatively.”

Being a wedding photographer is one of the best decisions I ever made. I am living my life to the fullest. I love others to taste the same. I still believe the more the merrier. That’s what I hope WSP is built for, to accommodate and provide good quality teaching.

Anyway, I am so excited to have this event going. It’s what I have been dreaming for, having someone like Sergio who has inspired and taught so many photographers out there to be a better photographers.

Sergio just booked his flight last week. His participation in this event involves 40 hours+ flight to be in Bali during his busy period of shooting weddings. I can’t thank him enough to believe in my vision. Don’t miss out to learn from the best. One of his sessions which I think could be useful for everyone is how he openly share his thoughts about your works (Critique session). I heard a lot of good feedback from his past session. So from now on, the participants can start collecting works to be critiqued during the seminar session. It will be full on and helpful, I promise.

Also, let’s networking at its best. We can’t make a better place by only having one person in the group. We need more people to come together to change the course of wedding photography to be appreciated better.

Remember guys, One week to go! We’d love to see that you too, can share to others www.bali2012.wikischoolpedia.com

 

I remember when I was kid that I glued in front of TV all the time. There were so many happy moments. I don’t think most kids now enjoy much TV more than their facebook status now. I guess it’s not entirely their faults. I don’t watch TV anymore as much as I like to.

Most of today’s TV programs, in my humble opinion, are complete rubbish. They are definitely lack of thoughts, too commercial and too direct. Reality TV is one of what I am referring to. They’re like ‘I create anything that has audience even though the materials are complete crap’. That’s exactly how I feel. They think about getting revenue at the most important priority, just for entertainment. I miss my Macgyver

I guess now you can refer to your profession as wedding professionals. Getting booked is sometimes the only reason you are working as the wedding professional. Like some says ‘wedding is where the money is’. I guess the quote ‘Be a trendsetter, not a follower’ becomes popular nowadays to remind people like them. Well, I’ll be very naive if I said that I don’t need booking, because I do. That’s how my family survives. Trust me, I am not so original because most of my works are the results of inspirations from somewhere. But I definitely shoot for myself, not for clients. By doing so, I am happy and of course my clients are happy. I know wsp never about me, but it’s my dream to have wsp to breed the better me. I hope all of you get my drift that if we start shooting to get clients only or to get booked, then it will be just similar concept of reality TV that’s lack of the word ‘classic’ or ‘timeless’.

Anyway, topics of creativity may need a different post in the future. I am not sure whether you guys have watched the below clip from ‘Korean got talent’. If you haven’t, please watch it so you know what I am talking about.

For me, This is what the reality TV at its best. That’s what reality TV wins over the traditional TV programs.

A lot of people ask me the direction or vision of where WSP wants to go. Here is my answer below:

I name wsp with ‘s’ stands for ‘school’ with reasons.

I believe everyone must have some process to succeed (that’s what school should give their students the process), like this korean dude. Obviously he learnt a lot from his difficult and good times from the process, that’s why he could finally realise that he had the talent. And ‘Korean got talent’ or any other of reality TV programs provide the bridge for the world to see this inspiring world. It’s the same story like Susan Boyle and so on.

We want to achieve what reality TV achieve for wedding professionals.

 That’s what I want to build wsp for. We want to achieve what reality TV achieve for wedding professionals. wsp provides a media for others to go through such process to unleash the hidden talent to become better artists and professionals and of course give the opportunity to shine too to the world.

I guess now your big questions are ‘how?’. Well, we are working on it, stay tuned!. But if you have some idea, let’s not be hesitate to msg me (wiki@wikilee.com) because the more idea may be the better it is.

That’s my vision of wsp – ‘Learn, Inspire, Creative”.

 

As a wedding photographer we have a lot of tools to do with such as cameras, lenses, flash lights, etc. Let’s talk about one of them, lenses. There are aperture range, lens coat quality, focal length, focus range, etc. Most people choose a lens to buy by their need of aperture and focal length. As a sample: 85mm lens f/1.8, mostly people use it for a portrait/ medium shot with a shallow dof.

By knowing your tools, you can see something in different perspective, you can maximize the advantage and also you can push your creativity. Below is a photo sample for using 85mm lens f/1.8 in a wide dimension.

On this case, it doesn’t mean you can not make a wide photo, if you’re using a 85mm lens f/1.8.

For us, using a medium lens for a wide photo will give a different perspective and dimension, wide photo with no distortion and also give a feel ‘not just like another wide photo’ .

Mastering your tools will be one of our topic on ‘find out the reason workshop’. Let’s talk about it from A to Z! See you guys!

Today is the eve of my first 3-days workshop for wedding photography in Sydney, Australia.

I’ve been talking in different backyards (internationally) but this time is finally in my home backyard (literally ). I thank God for the opportunity for me to share with others. I hope my workshop may assist others to be a better photographer than I am.

Here is our studio of where we are going to host the workshop:

After several hours spent to prepare of what I’ll be  talking in 3 days, a lot of people may not realise that not all photographers are born to talk. We, photographers, are looking and pressing our shutters mostly with instinct. Thus, how we are trying to tell others the way our mind works is darn hard.

Seth Godin, my favourite author, mentioned there are two types of schools. On his post, he mentioned the best teaching is when the students are challenged to learn to see and to solve the problems. But it’s definitely difficult task  knowing everyone has different background. It’s getting easy for the teachers to tell them to learn techniques that limit the creativity, decision-making and problem-solving skill from the students.

I pray God that I am not tempted to tell others to be like me. Everyone is unique.

Photography by Yu Hsin

Comment:

(Explosion of ) happiness,  (scream of ) craziness and of course the involvement of your mother *lol* I think this is what the marriage is all about, isn’t it?.

On a serious note, I heart this photo. I definitely want to have a photo like this from my wedding that allows me to talk “remember about this moment?” every time I see this photo.  This is what I think wedding photo should be. It tells the story about memories of the day spontaneously and how with one frame can represent the whole day’s event.

I am sure everyone agrees with the moment – no doubt about it. But in a moment like this, probably not everyone seeing it like Yu Hsin. Given the same moment in the hand of different photographer – it will turn out differently. I always believe that if you are professional, there is no such thing as lucky shot. I believe the frame is what makes this photo distinguishably good, how Yu Hsin composed two different supporting info about the main point of interest. The top frame is also left blank, as if we can hear the sound of the flying cork without actually being able to see it.